Month: January 2020

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Truckin’: Grateful Dead Tribute at Growlers

Jerry Garcia is dead and gone, but his music lives on. Thankfully, we can all still get our fill of music inspired by the Grateful Dead from tribute bands like The Grass Is Dead.

The group is due to make a stop in Memphis this Friday at Growlers, but not before they make their way around the solar system.

“We’re going to Jupiter, [we’re going to] outer space, and then we’re going to Mars later tonight,” jokes Brian Drysdale, drummer, percussionist, and a vocalist for the band.

The Grass Is Dead

While we can only assume this celestial quest is a ritualistic rite of passage, they’ll be back down to Earth soon, and we can revel in their Dead-inspired sounds, mixed with elements of bluegrass, blues, rock, and soul.

“We’re just a collection of friends,” says Drysdale. “You’ve got Drew Matulich, who’s not only a guitar player, he’s also a mandolin player. He can pretty much play any of the strings, and he’s super talented with swing music, jazz, bluegrass, reggae, all of that. And Ed Richardson, he’s the bass player. He’s a phenomenal musician and knows the Grateful Dead catalog so well. You’ve got Jared Womack with his bluegrass roots, and Billy Gilmore, he’s an encyclopedia of Dead tunes.”

Drysdale rattles off a long list of the group’s musical influences that include greats like the String Cheese Incident, Galactic, Sturgill Simpson, and, of course, the Grateful Dead.

“We’ve just been exposed to this insane kaleidoscope of tunes,” he says. “The best thing about it is to be able to meet these awesome humans and hear them play and be healed by music — because music is therapy, and everybody needs it.”

The Grass is Dead, Growlers, Friday, January 31st, 10 p.m.-1 a.m., $13/advance, $15/door.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

The Comedians Following Tool On Tour at 1884 Lounge

Last year, after a 13-year hiatus, rock band Tool released a new album, Fear Inoculum, and now they’re bringing the new tunes to the road with a U.S. tour. Three funnymen, Nick Youssef, Rory Scovel, and Freddy Scott, are big fans, so they’ve decided to follow the band while making a comedy tour out of it.

“[The idea] came up at a dinner in Los Angeles, when we all decided to go watch the [Tool] show at Staples Center,” says Youssef. “And almost in passing, I think as just this joke, I was like, ‘Yeah, if they do more dates in 2020, we should start a little tour and go follow them around.'”

Comedians Following Tool on Tour

Two weeks later, Tool released tour dates for January, and Youssef and the others decided to go for it.

“Everyone who knows us knows we love Tool,” he says. “And this is one of those moments where the stars sort of aligned in the sense that they haven’t had a new album out in a while. We thought we might not have this opportunity for a while, so we jumped on it.”

The three have since followed the band to places like San Diego and Austin, where they had the opportunity to meet Adam Jones, Tool’s guitarist.

“He came to the show in Austin and watched all of us and had a great time,” Youssef says. “He said a lot of very nice things, and we were all beyond thrilled. We all felt like teenagers again. … They have been so supportive. They put out a tweet and an Instagram [post] telling people about our tour, and we were absolutely floored by that because they don’t tweet much about other comedy or music acts.”

The Comedians Following Tool On Tour: The Tour, 1884 Lounge at Minglewood Hall, Thursday, January 30th, 7-11 p.m., $26-$31.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Ukraine Blues: A Test Drive of Mama’s Little Yella Pils

If you’ve ever been to Ukraine, specifically the city of Kharkov, about 20 miles from the Russian border, you realize that the fact that they’d elect a comedian and star of such rom-coms as Office Romance 1, 2, and 3 as president is entirely plausible. Even advisable.

It’s not an easy place to get to either: an eight-hour flight to Amsterdam, another four hours to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, and then a final hour leg on a hulking Soviet-era Anatov that moves through the clouds like a barely sky-worthy sofa.

When I was there, the Russians hadn’t pulled their little cross-border stunt yet, and while everyone knew that they were cooking something up, no one knew what form said stunt was going to take. So the Ukrainians did what most of us do when an ill-advised ex shows up musing about getting back together. They started drinking heavily.

Of course, given the over-abundance of history in these parts, they never really stopped drinking. And they’ve gotten very good at it. They aren’t ale folk over there; they mostly go in for Bohemian pilsners to wash down a local spirit called pertsivka, which is just horilla made with hot peppers. (Horilla, it was explained to me, was what Americans who don’t know the difference call vodka). All of which is soaked up with black bread and sausage. What is an intrepid writer to do when he finds himself in a place like Kharkov? He goes native.

Contrary to popular belief, Bohemia is not the home of the University of Colorado, nor is it a neighborhood in San Francisco; it is the westernmost region of the Czechs. Since the last reshuffling of Europe, it’s been located in the Czech Republic. It is also the place where sneers about pilsners being boring go to die.

Admittedly, this was an odd line of thought to be having in that great whacking beer isle of the Midtown Cash Saver, but it’s also pretty bent to get paid to drink at 9 a.m. on a Wednesday. So, there we are. I was staring at a six-pack of Oskar Blues Mama’s Little Yella Pils — and perhaps it was the inescapably Ukraine flavored impeachment theatrics — when I found myself reaching for this Bohemian pilsner and wondering where I could find some black bread. Mama’s Little Yella Pils is a clear golden, medium-bodied lager with a flavor that doesn’t faint away like the more watered-down American version. Using a lot of German malts and yeast, it’s cool-fermented and has a light touch of the Bavarian hops. It will pair well with the usual, just a little better: hot dogs, burgers, and in the rainy back-end of winter, a massive bowl of chili. And given the winter we’ve been having, it doesn’t cancel itself when the weather goes off-script. It’s a brew that you can enjoy, whether you want to give it much thought or not. This is beer as best supporting actor, not the lead — a role the current president of Ukraine wishes he had.

I can’t say that it took me back to those long, strange days in Kharkov. Which is probably a good thing: I recall being packed into one of the city’s buses and seeing a boy, maybe 12, walking down the street with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, holding a 16-ounce beer. I wasn’t the only one who saw him, just the only one who thought the whole thing was a little bent. He stopped to say something to a policeman. I don’t know if the kid was speaking Ukrainian or Russian, but the cop gave him a light.

In sum, Oskar Blues is a good beer for a picnic, after work, or to look across a surreal political climate and say, in that English-as-a-second-language accent, “We’re screwed. We are so totally screwed.”

Categories
Cover Feature News

20 < 30 The Class of 2020

CREDIT: Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

This is the eleventh year the Memphis Flyer has asked our readers to tell us about outstanding young people who are making the Bluff City a better place. We had a record number of nominees, so narrowing it down to 20 was more difficult than ever. We do this so Memphis can meet the leaders who will be shaping our future. Even though we live in a time of uncertainty, speaking to these talented 20 never fails to fill us with hope.

Here they are: Your 20<30 Class of 2020.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

Special thanks to Central Station Hotel for hosting our photo shoot.

……

Austin Rowe

Austin Rowe

Realtor

Austin Rowe wants you to Make Memphis Home. He adopted the motto three years ago when he got his realtor’s license, and he’s been putting people in houses ever since — he’s on track to sell $4.5 million worth this year. “I tell people all the time that Memphis has an undercurrent of soul that can’t be seen, it can’t be heard, it just pulls you in.”

Rowe lives in Midtown with his partner Taylor and their corgi Rivendell. He is active in Friends For Life and president of the Memphis chapter of the National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals. “I like the diversity in my neighborhood the most. You have African-American families, young white families, and older retired people living here. You have Latino families, Asian families. It’s everything about what America is supposed to be.”

……

Jared Boyd

Jared “Jay B.” Boyd

Reporter, Daily Memphian

After three years in Mobile, Alabama, Jared Boyd couldn’t wait to return to Memphis. “You know, home is home.”

When the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media graduate was offered a job at the Daily Memphian, he jumped at the chance. “I think the big thing about working here is how many well-respected stars are in this newsroom,” he says. “It’s like coming to work for the Avengers every day.”

Boyd’s other passion is music. “I started writing and recording in my bedroom when I was 12,” he says.

These days, he is the co-host of Beale Street Caravan, the long-running syndicated radio show that highlights music from Memphis and beyond. On the weekends, he can be found in the DJ booth. “Central Station is my home base … People come there and visit from as far away as London, and I love having conversations with people about music. It’s fun to be in that space and be the total brand ambassador.”

……

Paris Chanel

Paris Chanel

Modeling Agency Owner, Social Media Influencer

This is not the first time Paris Chanel has been on the cover of the Memphis Flyer. Most recently, the owner of the Paris Chanel Agency graced these pages on Valentine’s Day 2019. “I started [modeling] when I was 12,” she says. “It was love at first sight, and I haven’t stopped.

“Growing up in the industry, there weren’t a lot of girls who looked like me. And I thought, the lack of diversity is deep here. So I wanted to do something different. I want to be able to show diversity in all forms. We represent models who aren’t the standard shape and size. We have plus-size models, and we’re looking to get plus-size men on board, too … Everybody deserves a time to shine. So that was my thing — I wanted to create a new avenue for people who probably wouldn’t have been given the chance to explore their dreams.”

……

Ethan ferguson

Ethan Ferguson

Tech Entrepreneur

The first company Ethan Ferguson founded was Augseption XR, which offered augmented reality services for education uses. The second was Cinilope, which is developing new uses for drones. The most remarkable part of the story is, Ferguson is a 20-year-old sophomore at Rhodes College. “I decided  to put down roots in Memphis during high school. I had clients in my hometown, and I really wanted to keep working with them in the future. Being able to stay in Memphis to grow my business has been an amazing opportunity for me.

“Things are changing, and much of that has to do with the education system. We need to put education first. We need to be ready for the new, more automated, high-tech economy. Many of our students are being underserved. Fortunately, it doesn’t take a lot to upgrade from the old way of thinking to a  new one because the technology is everywhere.”

……

Ayo Akinmoladun

Ayo Akinmoladun

Dean of Instruction, Cornerstone Preparatory Elementary

“I graduated from Georgetown in 2013,” says Ayo Akinmoladun. “When I was in D.C., I did student teaching, and I realized that a lot of educational inequality popped up in D.C. So I looked all over the world until I saw Teach For America. They matched me here in Memphis. I’ve been here for seven years. I’ve seen the effect the political and the educational landscape has on students. I think, how can I change the narrative as a black educator here? As a rising principal, how can I change the narrative so students have access to college and [the same] opportunities as their peers?”

Akinmoladun says just seeing someone who looks like them at the head of the class can help encourage students who might otherwise get discouraged. “Black male teachers make a difference for low-income black boys. [With them], they are 29 percent more likely to pursue college and 39 percent less likely to drop out of high school.”

……

Terrica Cleaborn-Thornton

Terrica Cleaborn-Thornton

Lil’ Miracles Food Truck and Catering

Terrica Cleaborn-Thornton says she got her gifts from her mother. “We’ve catered for dignitaries. We’ve catered for Tom Shadyac, the Hollywood producer and U of M professor.”

When Cleaborn-Thornton thought it was time to upgrade to a food truck, she approached her mother with the idea. “We went to her right after she found out she had stage one cancer. ‘Mom, we have a gift. People flock to your home for food — all races, nationalities, and classes. Let’s serve.’ She said she wouldn’t do it unless we were giving back. I said, ‘We’re going to make it our mission that every homeless person, or someone in need, gets to eat for absolutely free, no matter what. That’s when we came up with the Pass Forward initiative.

At Lil’ Miracles Food Truck, what would usually be tips are put toward feeding anyone in crisis, no questions asked. Thornton calls the needy people who come to her for help Wandering Angels. “If you give people a reason to give back, they will.”

……

Deveney Perry

Deveney Perry

Resilient Communities Manager, BLDG Memphis

This Spelman College alumna and native Memphian is taking on equitable community and economic development in Memphis. “I’ve been working on a national initiative that works with communities to ensure community voices and decision-making guide equitable growth and development. The growth and development will benefit their health as well as their economic opportunities.” 

Perry’s work for BLDG Memphis includes things like supporting North Memphis communities to achieve and maintain land ownership, revitalizing public spaces that actually work for the people living there, and building the trust that society needs to thrive.

“We start community engagement at the point of a transactional need. We don’t start at the point of just building relationships. … Community engagement is not a one-time thing that is based on a need or an agenda. It’s a relationship that’s built over time. That’s how we’re able to support and revitalize Memphis neighborhoods.”

……

Gene Robinson

Gene Robinson

Germantown High School Football Coach

“I played football at Whitehaven High School, and that was my way to a free education,” says Gene Robinson. “I got a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina. It was there I got my passion for being able to come back to Memphis and show these young people the opportunities. When I got there, I was like, wow, there are all types of people here, and we’re all getting a free education through the game of football. You hear, ‘This kid can’t succeed,’ but get them on a college campus and get them a degree … well, most of my friends now have good jobs.”

When Robinson returned to Memphis after his collegiate career as a letterman defensive back, he became a coach for Fairley High School football, where he led the Bulldogs to three consecutive regional championships. As 2020 dawned, he moved to Germantown High School.

“I wanted to come back to Memphis because this is where I learned my grit, my grind. I wanted to give these kids a way out.”

……

Rod Erby

Roderick Erby

IT Auditor, International Paper

Roderick Erby has always been a good student. Looking back, he says he realized that he didn’t succeed alone. “I’ve had many informal mentors who, throughout the years, have taught me things that, at the time, I didn’t know I needed … I didn’t realize the gravity of that until I got to college.”

When he’s not keeping the information systems humming at IP, he devotes himself to mentoring people. “I have a mentee in graduate school and one who is about to graduate from high school. Here at International Paper, we have a scholar group of eight or nine kids we meet with every other Monday. They’re juniors in high school. One thing I always find I can help people with is professional etiquette … More recently, I’ve become interested in positive mental health practices. That’s where I’ve helped a lot of my friends who are even my age understand what it means to take care of their mental health, to get a therapist, and to be really intentional about making sure they’re okay mentally, as well as physically and spiritually … That’s what it comes down to for me: helping people. I’ve learned things. I’ve had a lot of experiences. Anything I can do to pass that along to other people to help them, that’s what makes me feel good.”

……

Kevin Brooks

Kevin Brooks

Filmmaker

The two-time Memphis Film Prize winner, Sundance fellow, and youngest-ever board member for the Memphis and Shelby County Film and Television Commission started his trajectory when he saw The Matrix at age 6. “I just really loved how that movie was very entertaining, but at the same time, it has moments that I felt were deeper than just action … That’s just kind of always stuck with me. I want to make entertaining films, but I want it to cause you to really think and leave the theater different than when you came in. That same year, my dad came home with a camera, so it’s like everything kind of played together. It was just meant to be, I guess.”

After the success of “Night Out,” the short he co-directed with Abby Myers, Brooks is working on a documentary and his first-ever feature film, which he plans to shoot in Memphis. “The best artists are the ones who know how to kill the ego and know it’s about serving the audience. That’s what you’re doing: You’re making something that can touch someone, and change someone’s life.”

……

Victoria Young

Victoria Young

Attorney, Baker Donelson

Before Victoria Young went to law school, she was a teacher. “I love teaching, but the changes I want to see made aren’t going to be done in the classroom. In order for me to have the effect I want to have, I would need to understand policy and how policymakers and legislators think. … It feels like the manifestation of a dream. I am blessed not only to practice law, but to be able to practice law in Memphis at a firm that has such a rich tradition and a rich history.”

For most people, that would be enough. But not for Young. She started spin classes while in college at Duke University, and when she returned to Memphis, she started Spincult, a boutique cycling studio in the Medical District.

“I wanted Spincult to be a hub for the anchor institutions of the Medical Center, but I was also building a place for me, as a grad student, to enjoy. … I wanted it to be a place where people who do the heart work can come and get a hard workout in.”

Earlier this month, Young welcomed her first daughter into the world. “Now, it’s even more important that I’m able to show her that you have to genuinely invest in the people you care about, and the places you care about.”

……

Kevin Woods

Kevin Woods

Urban Farmer

“When I came to Memphis about six years ago, I saw opportunity. There was so much blight around, vacant lots that I could utilize. I started looking at how to acquire some of these lots and went to the land bank and purchased a few. I was just trying to make urban farming a viable option for people in the city. … My urban farm is where all the blight is, where people are not likely to end up. People don’t want to live there. I was in those kinds of communities, trying to inspire people to either grow their own food to eat or to make a viable income for themselves. I haven’t reached that point, where you can sustain yourself from urban ag, but I’m going to keep working until I can do that.”

Woods, who also works as a project coordinator for Memphis Area Legal Services, renovated a formerly blighted house where he lives with his new baby Uriah. “I think we’re fighting toward a Memphis for everybody. Memphis has so much personality, so much flavor. It’s unfair to keep it in just one neighborhood.”

……

Joi Taylor

Joi Taylor

Alumni Director, Choose 901

Joi Taylor’s job is to keep talented young people in Memphis. “I was born and raised here. This is my city.”

She started working at Choose 901 in May 2017. “We have five local partner schools in the City of Memphis,” she says. “The whole idea is, after these kids graduate from these partner schools, they enter our program. Right now, we have over a thousand alumni in this program. Our objective is to connect them with opportunities, to mentor them. Anything they need to get ahead in life, it’s our job to connect them with that. But at the same time, to equip them with the skills and know-how to apply what they’ve learned from their mentors to the workplace. … Our whole thing is to make sure that the next generation of leaders in Memphis is well-equipped to take over and be the best that they can be. We want to improve the city of Memphis and [to help people] understand the leadership that’s in place now, so they won’t be clueless when it’s their turn to follow their dreams and take their rightful place as leaders of this city.”

……

Cara Greenstein

Cara Greenstein

Senior PR + Social Media Manager, Doug Carpenter and Associates

Cara Greenstein started her first food and lifestyle blog while she was in college in Austin, Texas. “Caramelized was a school project I started in a public relations writing class in 2012. It combines my passion for writing and story time with cooking and entertaining. When it originally started, it was just to practice my writing skills in the blog medium. But after I turned it in for a grade, I wanted to keep doing it.”

Her writing gained the attention of the Austin Chronicle, and her readership has continued to grow from there. “More recently, I’ve been working with national brands and products to be their lifestyle ambassador while also balancing the great food and lifestyle scene of my city.”

As soon as she graduated, she came back home. “I was watching Memphis’ development get started. I was seeing Downtown and the energy that was being reinvested, and I wanted to be a part of it. I actually met Doug Carpenter, who is now my boss at DCA, when I was a senior and considering my next move. It was even more compelling after that conversation. … I’m looking to build a city that is better connected.”

……

Katherine King

Katherine King

Senior Engineer, FedEx

“I am looking at what FedEx will be five to 10 years out,” says Katherine King. “My work involves looking at vision systems, robotics, and exoskeleton technology, which falls into general human augmentation technology. I get pretty excited about my job!

“When I was first looking for a way to connect with Memphis, I looked for places where I could find people like me, people in my community. Coming from Mississippi, and as someone who came out in college, I didn’t really have a community that identified with me as being part of the LGBTQ community. OUTMemphis was one of the first places that I looked. They just had so many opportunities to get involved.”

King has been an advisor for the OUTMemphis PRYSM youth group and met her future wife through the Metamorphosis Project. For the last two years, she has been the director of the Outflix Film Festival. “One thing I’m excited about, and have really tried to push for at the festival, is to broaden the idea of the LGBTQ voice when it comes to film. … I think there will always be a place for the coming out story in our community, but there’s room for more stories beyond that first step out of the closet.”

……

Daniel Bastardo-Blanco

Daniel Bastardo-Blanco

Ph.D. Student, UTHSC St. Jude Integrated Biomedical Science Program

“We are interested in understanding how the immune system works — how the body defends itself against cancer, against bacteria, and infection. In particular, I’m interested in understanding the molecular processes that drive the development of specialized immune cells. We use a number of tools to dissect which molecular players are key in the development of T-Cells, highly specialized white blood cells.”

Bastardo Blanco has a talent for communication that is the envy of many in his field. He has been published in everything from Nature to The Commercial Appeal. He is a freelance journalist and blogger who has advised his colleagues on “Bringing your science out of the journal and into the world.

“I am truly fascinated by the power of science,” he says. “I really believe science has the power to change life and to make the world better. But since I have become a scientist, I have come to realize there is a disconnect between scientists and the general public. We don’t really make a big effort to bridge the two, and we depend on each other.”

He is the founding president of the Venezuelan Alliance of Memphis and the former head of the UTHSC Graduate Student Executive Council. Next month, his research in Memphis will reach its climax when he defends his Ph.D. thesis.”This is coming in great timing for me because it’s really a conclusion of a very big chapter of my life.”

……

Carrington Trueheart

Carrington Trueheart

Cellist, Iris Orchestra

Carrington Trueheart didn’t start playing cello until the eighth grade, a full decade later than most people who perform at his rarified level. But that didn’t stop the Raleigh/Frayser native from obtaining his master’s degree from the University of Memphis and playing with some of the best conductors and musicians in the world. “One thing that music has taught me is, the more you know, the more you don’t know. I feel like every time I enter a new chapter of my life, that circle becomes bigger and bigger. So if you ask me if I’m a natural, I say maybe. But I have to work at it a lot.”

Trueheart is currently the Artist Fellow for the Iris Orchestra. “Part of the fellowship is addressing social inequity in the arts,” he says. “It’s a wonderful program that allows us to do a lot of community outreach. We get to play for kids at Le Bonheur and Hope House. We travel all over Memphis teaching kids in schools. It’s been a big part of my transition from being in school to being a professional.”

……

Goldie Dee

Goldie Dee

Entertainer

Goldie Dee, aka Micah Winter, thrives in the spotlight. “What really gives me anxiety is being in a room that is uncontrolled. When I go into an event space and I’m not an MC or a performer, I want to control it. If things are going off the rails, I feel it is my duty to jump in and contribute to the success of it. I get more anxiety being offstage watching people fail than I do being onstage failing.”

As the new historical marker at Evergreen Theater attests, there has long been an underground drag scene in Memphis. By performing in nontraditional venues and prestigious events such as the Cotton Carnival, Goldie Dee has been instrumental in bringing drag into the mainstream. “I’m on the board of Friends of George’s. It was one of the original discos here in town, which operated from the 1970s to the 1990s. We now operate as a charitable group. We have about four big shows a year under the TheatreWorks umbrella. We do three major donations a year of $10,000-$15,000.”

During the recent holiday season, she estimates she spent upward of 50 hours a month on stage. “That is my goal with Goldie: To be very visible at all times.”

……

Katrina Dorse

Katrina Dorse

Executive Director, Big Heart Fund

“I grew up in Memphis,” says Katrina Dorse. “I was one of those young people who … said ‘I’m never coming back.'”

She was pursuing a master’s degree in social work in Washington, D.C., when she became pregnant. “This was not in the five-year plan I had laid out,” she says.

Dorse returned to Memphis to have her baby with support from her family. “Kellen was born with seven congenital heart defects.”

About 1 in 100 babies are born with heart disease. Kellen spent three of his five months of life at the Le Bonheur cardiovascular intensive care unit, with Katrina by his side. “When I look back on our journey, I see I was very fortunate because we had a lot of support.”

But the other families in the ICU didn’t have that kind of support, so Dorse started the Big Heart Fund, which helps families of ill children with things like housing and other expenses. “You go through this experience that nothing in life can ever prepare you for, but at the end of it you’ve got this wealth of knowledge and experience that you can share with another family. If for nothing else, just to let them know that they’re not alone.”

……

Sherrie Lemons

Sherrie Lemons

Communications Director and Clinic Liaison, Memphis Full Spectrum Doula Collective

In 2018, Lemons was named Planned Parenthood’s Young Volunteer of the Year. One factor behind the award was her work as an abortion doula. “We’re the hand-holders of the abortion procedure. We provide physical and emotional support for each patient as needed. If the patient wants us in there with them — consent is a huge factor in what we do — we go into the room with them, we are in there throughout the procedure. … We give them whatever they need.”

Lemons is a native Memphian who is clear-eyed about the kind of future she wants to help build for the Bluff City. “I really want an equitable city. I don’t want to see Memphis associated with the level of poverty that it is currently associated with. … I truly want Memphis to be for everyone. I don’t want that to just be a tagline, putting a smile on a city that has struggled.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Dragon Ball-Griz, NST, and I-40 Traffic

Dragon Ball-Griz

Head over to Poshmark, the online consignment store, for the Grizzlies/Dragon Ball Z mash-up you never knew you needed.

Posted to Poshmark by coolmoe919

It’s the way to go

Posted to Reddit by u/madotsukiiii

It really is

Posted to Reddit by u/lunarmaidmemphis

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers 59, UCF 57

Lance Thomas became a Memphis Tiger Wednesday night in Orlando.

After sitting out the 2018-19 season following his transfer from Louisville, the sophomore forward spent 19 games trying to find traction with a role in coach Penny Hardaway’s rotation. Inserted into the starting lineup for the first time in over two months, Thomas scored a career-high 20 points and connected on two critical three-pointers in the game’s final three minutes to help Memphis beat the Knights and end a two-game losing streak. (Thomas’s previous scoring high: 11 points.)

With the win, the Tigers improved to 15-5 on the season and 4-3 in the American Athletic Conference. UCF fell to 11-9 (2-6).

Boogie Ellis returned to the starting lineup after coming off the bench for four games and contributed 13 points for Memphis. Freshman forward Precious Achiuwa missed his first four shots but finished the game with his 11th double-double of the season (18 points and 13 rebounds).

The Tigers were again prone to turnovers, yielding the ball on 17 possessions. But they shot 44 percent from the field and out-rebounded UCF, 38-27. The Tigers only got six points from reserves in the victory. Sophomores Alex Lomax and Tyler Harris saw limited minutes and did not score.

Memphis hosts its next three games over the first eight days in February, starting Saturday when Connecticut (11-9) visits FedExForum. Tip-off is scheduled for noon.

Categories
News News Blog

Gun Control Advocate: Proposed Red Flag Law Step in Right Direction

A Tennessee lawmaker is looking to create a red-flag law here.

Sen. Sara Kyle (D-Memphis) is sponsoring the red flag or “extreme risk” bill, which would allow law enforcement officers, family or household members, and intimate partners to petition the court to remove a firearm from someone who might be a danger to themselves or others.

Specifically, the SB 1807 provides that if someone has a “reasonable belief that a person poses an imminent risk of harm to the person or others if allowed to purchase or possess a firearm may seek relief” by filing a sworn petition for emergency protection.

The court can then decide to issue an emergency protection order. Within 30 days of that order, a hearing would be held where the petition must prove there is a risk of harm. The court would then decide to extend the order for up to a year or revoke it.

Some form of red flag law has been enacted in 17 states and Washington, D.C.

Kat McRitchie, volunteer lead for the Tennessee chapter of Moms Demand Action, said red flag laws have proven to save lives in states where they are in place and is a “good start for gun control.”

“We know in places where there are red flag laws there is a reduction in gun deaths by suicide and related to domestic violence,” McRitchie said. “This accounts for two huge percentages of gun deaths. Red flag laws best serve the public interest and save people’s lives.”

McRitchie said the group is also working with Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) on a bill related to firearm storage. As drafted, the bill, HB 801, would make it Class A misdemeanor to leave a firearm or ammunition unlocked in a motor vehicle or boat that is unattended or where someone under 18 is present.

If firearms or ammunition are left in vehicles, they would have to be locked in the trunk, glove box, or elsewhere in the vehicle. Violation of the law would be punishable by a fine of up to $500.

[pullquote-1]

The goal is to ensure that guns are not just out of sight, but secured in vehicles, McRitchie said. “Gun thefts in vehicles are a big problem in our state so that’s something we plan to spend a lot of time developing.”

Moms Demand Action is also preparing to oppose any bills that might reduce or eliminate Tennessee’s handgun permitting process, which McRitchie said the group expects to see introduced this session.

Last year, a bill was passed that changed the handgun permitting process in Tennessee and McRitchie said the group doesn’t want to see the process compromised any further.

“I think that is really dangerous for Tennesseans and just a barrier to public safety,” McRitchie said. “We will defend any further weakening of this permitting system.”

Previously, to carry a gun in public spaces, one has to have eight hours training which included live-fire training with a certified instructor and passing a test to demonstrate knowledge of gun safety practices. As of January 1st, one can acquire a general gun permit by just passing an online test with no live-fire training.

“If I took my three kids to the park near our house in 2019 and saw somebody carrying a firearm, I could make a reasonable assumption that they had training with a certified instructor and could fire a gun safely,” McRitchie said. “Now, I don’t have that same security. When I see someone with a gun in public now, I can’t expect that they have that level of training. That’s frightening to me as a mom and as a Tennesseean.”

McRitchie said the group would also like to see a bill requiring background checks for all gun sales in Tennessee, but doesn’t legislators introducing such bills this session.

U.S. Rep Steve Cohen joined Moms Demand Action group for control rally in the fall


Tennessee has a high volume of online and private gun sales, which can all be done legally without any type of background check, McRitchie said.

“Tennessee has a long history of responsible gun ownership that crosses partisan lines and geographic lines and all the other kinds of lines we like to draw in Tennessee,” McRitchie said. “So I think that we can agree on reasonable standards of responsible gun ownership.”

Last year, the U.S. Senate passed H.R.8 or the Bipartisan Background Check Act of 2019, which requires background checks on all gun sales, but the House has not followed suit.


Guns and Crime

In 2019, there 5,188 gun-related violent incidents in Memphis, according to the Memphis and Shelby County Crime Commission. That number is slightly down from 2018 when there were 5,579 incidents and from 2017 when 5,887 incidents occurred.

Last year, Memphis had a total of 1,904 per 100,000 people or about 12,000 incidents. This means violent gun incidents accounted for nearly half of all major violent crime.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland highlighted these numbers in his weekly newsletter to constituents last week. Though all violent crime in the city was down by 4.1 percent in 2019 compared to 2018, Strickland noted that the homicide rate increased by 2.2 percent from the previous year.

Overall violent crime trend in Memphis

Gun violence incidents in Memphis


“That fact was further highlighted this week with the senseless violence that happened over the weekend stealing three young people from their families, their friends, and our community,” the mayor said.

Strickland’s newsletter didn’t specifically mention how the city is addressing gun violence, instead he touted the ways in which the city is working to reduce the overall crime rate.

“We based it on best practices from cities nationwide, and began implementing it as soon as we took office,” he said in the email.

Some of the strategies to reduce crime that Strickland pointed to are rebuilding the Memphis Police Department (MPD), a goal the mayor has stood by since taking office in 2016.

Strickland, along with MPD top brass, have been working to fully staff the department with at least 2,300 officers.

“A fully staffed and resourced MPD is key to our overall efforts — particularly in strengthening community policing,” Strickland wrote.

Another element of the city’s strategy to reduce violent crime is “positively affecting more young people,” which the mayor said includes increasing summer jobs for youth, enhancing library programming, and doing outreach to at-risk youth.

Strickland said the city is also working to reduce recidivism, increase economic opportunity, and punish violent offenders “to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Though you probably do not feel it, we are making headway,” Strickland said.

[pullquote-2]

McRitchie agrees that there are substantial efforts being made as it relates specifically to reducing gun violence in Memphis, but believes more could be done: “There are lots of good things that are happening in Memphis and I don’t want to discount that. But in a city like ours, where the gun homicide rate is as high as it is, having a centralized task force to look at gun violence would be beneficial.”

McRitchie also believes there needs to be more intervention for youth who have gun-related offenses, comprehensive support for gunshot victims, and a greater effort to remove guns from those convicted of domestic violence offenses.

“Essentially, we would love to see Memphis look at gun violence as a public health epidemic and crisis,” McRitchie said. “I know that should be on the radar of the Shelby County Health Department.”

Gun violence looks a lot of different ways, McRitchie said, “so it’s going to take a lot of different ways to stop it. It’s going to take a multi-modal approach, just as we approach a health crisis.”

Status Quo

“It boggles my mind that 100 Americans are dying every day from gun violence and another 200 are wounded by gunshots every day,” McRitchie said.

Growing up, McRitchie said she was aware of the damage gun violence could cause, as her dad worked at the trauma center here.

“As an educator who worked in Memphis City Schools, I’ve walked through gun violence with students,” she said. “I saw what it looked like for people to lose children, and cousins, and friends because they were shot.”

When McRitchie’s oldest daughter started preschool, she said she was urged to took action.

“She came home one day and described playing a silent game in the bathroom with her class,” McRitchie said, “She was describing a lockdown drill to me, but fortunately she didn’t know that. I realized within one generation, we have normalized and accepted gun violence as the status quo in our country. I couldn’t do nothing anymore.”

Gun violence happens everywhere in America, McRitchie said: “There’s not a community that’s immune to it.

“It’s not an us or them problem, or a rural problem or a city problem, or a wealthy problem or a poor problem,” she said. “Gun violence is taking lives in every community in different ways. And until we accept it as all of our problems it’s going to continue.”


Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies Smoke Nuggets in First Wire-to-Wire Win of the Season

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

The Memphis Grizzlies successfully defended their home court Tuesday night against the Denver Nuggets, coming away with a 104-96 victory and securing their first wire-to-wire win of the season. And defend it they did, holding Denver to a rare sub-100-point game. 

Larry Kuzniewski

Dillon Brooks, Taylor Jenkins

There were a lot of things to be excited about from this game if you’re a Grizzlies fan. 
Winning is always great, but some of the things they did to secure the win were spectacular to watch. Jaren Jackson Jr. finishing the night with only one personal foul feels like a victory in its own right. As does Memphis scoring 20 points off of 19 Denver turnovers.

By The Numbers:
Dillon Brooks – 24 points, 3 assists
Jonas Valanciunas – 23 points, 12 rebounds
Ja Morant – 14 points, 7 assists, 4 steals
Jaren Jackson Jr. – 10 points, 7 bocks
Brandon Clarke – 12 points, 6 rebounds


We Go Hard in the Paint
The Grizzlies outscored the Nuggets 76-22 in the paint. Yes, you read that correctly —SEVENTY-SIX PAINT POINTS. On a night when making outside shots is a struggle, the ability to score in the paint is especially valuable — a lesson the young Grizzlies appear to have learned.

Per Grizzlies PR: “This is the second-highest paint scoring total in franchise history behind the record of 78 set on Feb. 26, 2011 vs. Sacramento. This is the third time this month that Memphis, the most-prolific paint-scoring team in the NBA this season, has scored at least 70 points in the paint.”


We Get By With a Little Help From Our Friends
32 assists on 46 made field goals? Yes, please! This was yet another game in which the Grizzlies had 30 or more assists, bringing that total to 18 games so far this season. Memphis also currently leads the league in assists per game.

Jaren Jackson Jr. Would Like to Invite You to the Block Party
While tying his career-high of 7 blocks, Jackson Jr. also extended his career-best streak of games with multiple threes made and multiple blocks to five games.

Grizzlies Smoke Nuggets in First Wire-to-Wire Win of the Season

Free At Last, Maybe?
With Grayson Allen, Bruno Caboclo, and Jae Crowder all sidelined due to injuries, Coach Jenkins has had to get a bit more creative with lineups. He’s also called up two-way players Yuta Watanabe and John Konchar, as well as swingman Josh Jackson.

John Konchar scored his first NBA points during 12 minutes of playing time. Both Yuta Watanabe and Josh Jackson were listed as DNP-Coach’s Decision.

Time will tell if the calls to #FreeJoshJackson have actually been heeded for real.

Jackson has spent the entirety of the season to date playing with the Grizzlies G-league affiliate, the Memphis Hustle.

Who Got Next?
The Grizzlies are headed to “The World’s Most Famous Arena” to face off against the New York Knicks on the second game of a back-to-back. Tip-off is at 6:30 PM CST, and a win against the Knicks would put the Grizzlies at .500 for the season. 

Categories
News News Blog

Sports Betting Now Open at Southland Casino Racing

CREDIT: Southland Casino Racing

Southland Casino Racing

Sports betting opened at Southland Casino Racing on Tuesday.

The Kansas City Chiefs will win Super Bowl 54 on Sunday.

That’s the prediction of Le Le, one of the Memphis Zoo’s giant pandas, anyway. Think you know better? Wanna bet? Put some money on it? Now you can, right across the river.

Southland Casino Racing opened its book for sports betting on Tuesday. There, you can make wagers on Sunday’s game, the NBA, college basketball, NASCAR, PGA tournaments, and more.

You can place your bets at teller windows or one of the many kiosks inside the Sports Bar & Grill and other spots inside the casino.

Sports betting arrived in the Tunica, Mississippi casinos in 2018. In December 2019, more than $12.4 million in bets were placed in the northern region of the state in basketball, football, and cards. Sports bets across the state were more than $49 million in December, according to the Mississippi Gaming Commission.

Memphis and Shelby county leaders supported sports betting here last year.

State legislators approved sports betting across the state with a new law. That law will allow sports betting in areas only if it is approved by local election. The law also created a Tennessee Gaming Commission and levied a 20-percent tax on gross revenues. The tax is expected to yield nearly $6 million for the state’s general fund in the next fiscal year.

However, no sports betting is happening yet in Tennessee (legally, at least). The commission has not yet been fully organized and no licenses have yet been issued.

Over at Southland in West Memphis, the casino is getting a $250 million expansion and facelift. The project includes a new casino complex and a high-rise hotel.
The casino announced last year that it changed its name to Southland Casino Racing in April. It announced in October that it would phase out live greyhound racing by 2022.

Categories
Music Music Blog

New Memphis Colorways: A Man, A Band, A Plan

Paul Taylor, aka New Memphis Colorways

Memphians not hip to specific personnel in the local music scene may have seen the name New Memphis Colorways pop up in their feeds from time to time, and wondered just what that could be. A man? A band? A plan? [Panama? – ed.]

Actually, it’s all three. First of all, it’s the man otherwise known as Paul Taylor, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist who grew up in the midst of many Memphis music luminaries, including his own father, legendary singer and guitarist Pat Taylor. “And I learned most of my songcraft from Richard Orange,” Taylor adds. “He was very much a second dad to me.”

Orange, of course, first came to Memphis as leader of the band Zuider Zee, whose recent release of archival material from 1972-74, Zeenith, was dubbed one of 2018’s best reissues by Rolling Stone magazine. That’s especially relevant because echoes of that era, albeit with some serious reconfiguring, are all over New Memphis Colorway’s new album, The Music Stands., to be celebrated at a release party on Friday, January 31 at The Green Room at Crosstown Concourse. It will simultaneously become available on all streaming services.

“The first two tracks are my weird modern take on Memphis power pop,” says Taylor, “and then it shifts to songwriter/acoustic mode for a couple songs, and then a couple of art rock instrumentals. Then the last song is a reflective ballad.”

While it’s easy to lay claim to the territory first mapped out by Big Star, Zuider Zee, or the Hot Dogs back in the day, the proof comes as soon as the proverbial needle drops. (Someone please put this out on vinyl!) “Impossible Goals” revs up like the Clash, then hits you with unexpected riffs and the kind of unaffected, straight-arrow singing you might have thought was extinct.

One astounding feat is the way Taylor’s voice has hints of Alex Chilton, even as his songwriting has more echoes of Chris Bell. And yet the music also could sit comfortably next to much later touchstones, like the Posies, in all its unexpected harmonic and rhythmic turns.

“I don’t want to be super-referential to the past,” notes Taylor. “I hold in my head, daily, the Sam Phillips quote, ‘If you’re not doing something different, you’re not doing anything at all.’ I do make study of older music, and I think it’s critical that you learn it note for note. I’m transcribing jazz solos or learning Steve Cropper or Teenie Hodges or Reggie Young, or the drumming of Gene Chrisman and Al Jackson Jr. These are my heroes. But I don’t deliberately set about making music that shows that off. At the end of the day, I try to throw that away and just let the songs come out.”

And come out they do, as some notable musicians, having heard advance tracks, have remarked on.

“Paul Taylor’s new record, under the nom de plume New Memphis Colorways, is like looking through a glass phosphorescently. Truly an artist of wizardry, sailing uncharted waters of sound, colour and light. An otherworldly adventure in melodic transcendence. Not to be missed.” – Richard Orange

Okay, that was from his “second dad” and mentor. But other songwriters have weighed in as well. Chuck Prophet, with whom Taylor has worked extensively in the past, said, “Paul has really come into his own here. Although the songs are deceptively simple, there’s a world inside each track. These little musical creations are killer. They will creep up on you. They’ll reach out and grab you. It’s all very soulful. And a little magical too. Kinda proggy. Kind of indie. And utterly impossible to describe. I dig it.”

And one of Memphis’ more literary songwriters, Cory Branan, had this to say: “Paul’s out of his damn mind. He conjures more original musical ideas in 12 bars than most musicians do with entire albums. The Music Stands. finds him, as always, accessing strangenesses and welding the unexpected with a singular vision.”

One striking thing about the record is that it doesn’t sound, like so many records, like the product of tinkering. It has the impact of a full-on rock band. Which would seem to answer the second query as to what exactly New Memphis Colorways is. But if you assumed it was a band from, say 1979, playing on these tracks, you’d be wrong. Nearly all the instruments were played by Taylor. New Memphis Colorways is a band in a man.

“I grew up listening to a lot of Todd Rundgren and a lot of Prince, and people like that who made records where they played everything. It’s what I’ve been doing since I was literally seven years old, when my dad was helping me four-track songs, so it seemed like a natural thing for me to do. The next record I make, I would hopefully play an acoustic guitar and hire a band around me, and do it live, like a lot of Memphis records that I love were. This one is more of a D.I.Y. affair, which is fun.”

Nevertheless, the album release show will have a full band. “I have musicians that are just incredible,” says Taylor. “Hopefully we’ll be playing more shows.”

Add that to a long list of releases, projects and entities with which Taylor is associated, much of which he releases on his own label, the Owl Jackson Jr. Record Company. “New Memphis Colorways is my brand,” Taylor clarifies. “And it’s all encompassing. Anybody who knows me knows I do a bunch of different things. The EP I released previously [Old Forest Loop] was drastically different from this, and the next one will probably be drastically different.” Still other eclectic expressions come in the form of an album of experimental instrumentals that exist only under the hashtag #nmcvignettes, and an even earlier online release, The Old Forest Trail.

The diversity of these varied projects is a delight in its own right, and ultimately shows that, at heart, New Memphis Colorways is a plan. “I’m a huge fan of skateboard art and graphic design in general,” explains Taylor. “If you were to release a skateboard, it might have different color combinations and variations on the same graphic: colorways. The whole concept of New Memphis Colorways is that it’s new combinations of ideas.” In this newest work, one finds the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach of the ’70s alive and well, and definitely kicking. It’s an approach that suits New Memphis Colorways just fine.